Arctic Schooner

[wireandpaper]

Dear All:
Long time ago while surfing the web, I found a vintage model of an Arctic Schooner, which looks very similar to the Antarctic Snow Cruiser. The nice looking, Snow Cruiser was a fiasco. It had smooth wheels! It was designed in Chicago, hard to believe but that was its main flaw. In any case as modelers, we do not discriminate and some of the most intriguing designs are given a space here.
Does anyone have more information about the Arctic Schooner paper model like the author and date of publication? It looks like a Rigby but no signature.

[DougH]

I've not seen the model you show but for those interested in the Snow Cruiser there is one in 1:100 scale available in the minimodel.sk web site in the FDS range, Machine series https://www.minimodel.sk/en/catalog/...ne-series.html

[Thumb Dog]

Hi All,

And hi, wireandpaper. I can’t comment on the origin or designer of the Arctic Schooner except to say I thought the model was originally published in a Sunday newspaper.

Here are a pair of photographs showing a heavily modified Schooner I built some years ago. It’s a simple build, but I took way too much time cleaning up the drawing. The Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing flat was found on the internet and glued in place. At just over four inches, it’s a small model but it brings a lot of color to the shelf.

Score and fold,

Thumb Dog

[papermodelfan]

The original Antarctic Snow cruiser that Admiral Byrd tried to use was the subject of a Rigby model published in the Sunday supplement pages, I think, and included the Beechcraft Staggerwing plane (on skis). This looks like some kind of anonymous knock off, but not as sophisticated a design as Rigby's. Cute though. Wonder if it existed?

[papermodelfan]

Ooops, I crossed a wire. Original Antarctic models was not a Rigby.The Antarctic Schooner model was published by Editions Pelican Blanc (the same group that printed Ingenia models) in French as "Croiseur des neiges", May 7 1941, designed by Marg Schambert, one of the Ingenia designers. Scale was 15 mm/M. It has the Staggerwing on skis on its back.

[wireandpaper]

DougH:
Thank you very much for the site. It has not only the Snow Cruiser but also the Kharkovchanka and the smaller Sno Cat.
Thumb Dog:
I think you did a wonderful job with the Snow Schooner!
Papermodelfan:
Much appreciated your information.

Here is my take at a quick and dirty, touched up and build of the Snow Schooner with a Beaver (since I didn’t have at hand a Staggerwing in my usual 1/400. Also a comparison with other Antarctic vehicles including what I thought was the enormous Kharkovchanka dwarfed by the Snow Schooner/Cruiser.

[Tapcho]

Hi all,
New subject to me and interestin cauce I just built the Tucker Snow-Cat. I tried to track Marg Schambert's work through French sites and pages but very little info came up. But I found yet another version Schooner/Cruiser and this one comes with the Byrd's 'bird'. You can find it here: Paperdiorama.

Tappi

[scon10]

Interesting concept. I wonder how they managed to get the Staggerwing from the top of the vehicle. I don't see any crane-like structure.

[Moritzamica]

There is another detailed model from Minimodels designer FDS, you can find it here:

https://www.minimodel.sk/en/catalog/...w-cruiser.html

Scale is 1:100. Download as pdf (4 sites).

[murphyaa]

I did some research, and apparently they had some kind of job crane that was detachable. It was able to be mounted over each wheel to be able to change them out in case of flats, and to lift the plane onto the back.